The benefits of Wednesday’s announcement are substantial. Various organizations, including some that oppose the new rule, project it will cover one million to 2.3 million previously uninsured Americans. Projections by Medicare’s chief actuary indicate it will reduce premiums for millions more by an average of 30 percent.

The policy change also promises more secure coverage for the sick. It frees consumers to avoid Obamacare’s price controls, which are erodingcoverage for the sick. Instead, consumers can purchase consecutive short-term plans, tied together with renewal guarantees that protectthem from medical underwriting when they fall ill.

Renewal guarantees can even protect some 200 million consumers with employer-based coverage, or no health insurance, from medical underwriting — for just one-tenth the cost of Obamacare plans.

When Congress passed Obamacare, insurers had just begun selling renewal guarantees as a standalone product. These policies gave purchasers the right to enroll in a health insurance plan whenever they wanted, at healthy-person premiums, no matter how sick they got in the meantime, and cost roughly 90 percent less than the average Obamacare premium. Twenty-five states approved this marvelous innovation for sale before Obama unilaterally banned it. Wednesday’s rule makes this and further innovations possible again.”